Beer travels and links!

Matt Horney (Old Rail), me, Zac Caramonta (Gnarly Barley), and Josh Erickson (Chafunkta)
during ACBW at the Avenue Pub.

Bad Blogspot! It crashed and wiped out my previous draft of this blog post. However, I now suspect that it may have sucked, so it may be for the best.


Spent some time in New England and went to Night Shift Brewing's new expanded brewery and tap room. Had some excellent beer there. I think Night Shift is doing some of the most innovative (yet high-quality) beer in the state right now. I also went to Cape Ann Brewing Co for some clam chowder, lobster pie, and beer with a view of the Gloucester harbor. In between, I was in New Hampshire - I didn't get a chance to go to any breweries (aside from a lunch at Martha's Exchange brewpub in Nashua) but I did go to The Beer Store and picked up some Cisco Whale's Tail Pale Ale (in cans), Smuttynose Bouncy House, Mayflower Summer Rye, and Long Trail Mostly Cloudy. Fun beer drinking. Sad that I didn't get my hands on any Trillium or Jacks Abbey while up there, though.

A Cape Ann Fisherman's Reserve bottle of a wine barrel aged dubbel. 

Was a working vacation, though. Here are some links to prove it:

• I have been all over the opening of Barrel Proof in the Lower Garden District for Eater. I've done a general Inside Look (has many photos), an interview with GM Liam Deegan, and a Beer Here! feature that focuses on the beer aspects of the new whiskey/beer bar.
• In the Gambit, I did a roundup of what beer professionals thought about this year's American Craft Beer Week last week and a review of the NOLA Beer Tours tour I went on at the start of the month. (disclaimer: I did not pay for the tour, but I didn't receive any incentive to write about it, and it is a true representation of my experience. Your mileage may vary.)
• And last but not least, my piece on Great Raft Brewing is up on the Shreveport Times website and was published in today's newspaper. It's my first newspaper piece, so I'm pretty excited about that.

In "accidental crazy viral marketing" news, Brad Pitt threw a can of NOLA Brewing Hopitoulas from his FQ balcony to Matthew McConaughy on HIS FQ balcony (where Drew Brees was also chilling) and NOLA President Kirk Coco has been busy ever since. What a funny bit of PR for NOLA. It is cool to see big movie stars drinking craft beer in general, and then to add the fact it's a local beer...

The Mississippi brewing scene got a lot of attention in the media, with the Atlantic profiling their beers along with Beijing and Washington DC's. CNN Money also got in the Mississippi state of mind with their piece about the state's rapid beer scene expansion, featuring Mark and Leslie Henderson from Lazy Magnolia. Also, a new brewery, Natchez Brewing Company, is using Kickstarter to get up and running - it's got a couple weeks left, check it out.

Southern Living chose Bayou Teche's flagship LA-31 Bière Pâle as its favorite Louisiana beer.

Thrillist lists eight signs that you are in a "serious" beer bar.

Oh! Here's a way to maybe get a little help with your Avenue Pub related drinking problem: if you use social media to post the beers you drink at the Pub, you might just get a $10 bar tab. Randomly selected winners are chosen every week.

I know I should have posted this last week, but it was busy what with all the travel prep and actual traveling. Next week will start the ramp up to the WYES events, so stay tuned!